UFC 92: What We Will Know Before the Ball Drops

Dana White sure knows how to put a fight card together. UFC 92 started out with the TUF 9 coaches facing off: Nog vs. Mir. Then Couture decides to come back and all of a sudden he is fighting Brock Lesnar and we have a mini-tournament in the heavyweight division. Couture vs. Lesnar will take place at UFC 91.

Today, Dana White solidified the UFC 92 card, via Yahoo Sports. Along with the aforementioned fight, we will have the light-heavyweight title fight between Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans. Griffin beat Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to claim the title at UFC 86. Rashad Evans shocked the world by landing “the shot heard round the MMA world” against Chuck Liddell.

That catapulted him into the title fight. We now have TUF 1 winner vs. TUF 2 winner. Great marketing but probably not as good as what Griffin vs. Liddell would have been. I doubt Rashad is feeling very apologetic.

If that wasn’t enough to make for a great fight card, we are fortunate to have one other fight. It’s a fight aptly called Rampage vs. Wanderlei Part III. We certainly have a lot of fights up for “fight of the night potential.”

This fight should be an all out war. Neither of these men cares for each other and with Wanderlei winning the first two fights, Rampage will be looking to prove Silva isn’t his kryptonite and get a rematch against Griffin.

Wanderlei is looking to prove that he is more then a Pride Legend and secure his status in the UFC. If he wins, he gets his own title shot. The man being overlooked in all of this is Lyoto Machida.

If he beats Thiago Silva in convincing fashion, then he could leapfrog either of the aforementioned fighters, although most pundits think that’s unlikely.

If the trilogy wasn’t enough, by the end of the fight card, we will know who will be fighting for the light-heavyweight title in 2009.

Griffin/Evans vs. Jackson/Silva: The winners of these two fights should meet for the title by July of 2009, barring injuries. When have we ever had two profile fights in the same division, back-to-back on the same card to determine the title fight in the following year? I wouldn’t be surprised if the two winners wanted to settle the dispute that night!

Let’s not forget about the heavyweight fight between Nog and Mir. Both these men are BJJ experts, and it will be interesting to see how much of this fight is standing up versus on the ground.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will certainly be the heavy favorite, as he is considered by many to be the No. 2 heavyweight of all time. Mir doesn’t seem to stand a chance, but don’t count this resilient fighter out.

So what will we know about the heavyweight division by the end of the night? We will know who the winner of Couture vs. Lesnar (UFC 91) will be facing in unify the heavyweight division in 2009.

This will be an epic fight card, which will answer more questions than most fight cards ever could. So let’s recap the possibilities for title fights in 2009:

Heavyweight Division:                                  Light Heavyweight Division:

Couture vs. Nog                                       Forrest vs. Rampage

Couture vs. Mir                                        Forrest vs. Wanderlei

Lesnar vs. Nog                                         Rashad vs. Rampage

Lesnar vs. Mir                                          Rashad vs. Wanderlei

If those potential matchups don’t excite you as an MMA fan, then I don’t know what will.

And both of any of these fights should happen in the first half of 2009!

Also, by the end of the year, we will know who the winner of GSP vs. Penn will face for the welterweight title in 2009. The winner of Diego Sanchez vs. Thiago Alves, who fight at UFC 90, will determine the No. 1 contender. That man will get his title shot by July 2009.

And at the lightweight division, we will know the No. 1 and No. 2 contenders. Sean Sherk fights Tyson Griffin at UFC 90 and Kenny Florian will fight Joe Stevenson at UFC 91.

The two men standing will either have to square off in 2009 to see who fights B.J. Penn for the lightweight title, or B.J. Penn will vacate the division, and they will fight each other to crown a new champion. So let’s recap the possibilities at for title fights in 2009.

Welterweight Division:                          Lightweight Divison:

GSP vs. Thiago Alves                         BJ Penn vs. #1 contender

GSP vs. Diego Sanchez                      Florian/Stevenson vs. Sherk/Griffin*                 

BJ Penn vs. Alves        

BJ Penn vs. Sanchez                                                                                                                                                                

*If BJ Penn vacates his lightweight title.

Most of the questions as to what will happen within the UFC divisions will be answered by the time the ball drops, and we usher in 2009. What you may have noticed is the middleweight division was left out of this article.

This division is much more convoluted, and after Silva fights Cote at UFC 90, anything could happen, with no clear cut No. 1 contender in the picture. What we will know about the MW division is Anderson Silva will be the champion, and he will need a fresh contender to fight in 2009.         

In any event, it is a great time to be a fan of the UFC. Look for 2009 to be the best year ever.